


After all this time...

by shippasfuxk



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Exes, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Love, Sad Cheryl Blossom, Soft Toni Topaz, timejump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:20:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29423712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shippasfuxk/pseuds/shippasfuxk
Summary: Cheryl and Toni after seven years. Toni is pregnant, single, and missing Cheryl. Cheryl is alone, and feeling abandoned. This is multi-chapter because I love the slow burn of the time jump so much.
Relationships: Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz
Comments: 3
Kudos: 49





	1. 1

Toni's heart starts to beat uncomfortably fast when Archie asks about her and Cheryl. She doesn't know what to say, really. She checks up on Cheryl as often as she can between leading the serpents, bartending _and_ owning the White Wyrm, and being the guidance counselor at Riverdale High.

"Well you know we broke up after graduation, and when I went to High Smith College, except Cheryl stayed here. "I go to see her every once in a while, I actually went to see her recently, and she asked if she could paint me. So of course I said yes..."

_flashback_

"Cheryl, no one has seen you in town in years." Toni says, looking on as Cheryl paints her. 

"Oh don't worry about me, TT. Me and Nana Rose are fine here. There's no reason to leave." Her voice ticks up toward the end, as if she's lying or maybe she's losing that sweet, quieter voice that she always had reserved for Toni. 

"I am worried, Cheryl. Why don't you come see everyone? Don't you want to hear about me?" Toni drills on, needing to know why Cheryl is holed up at home all the time. 

"I know all about you, beloved TT. You graduated High Smith with a 3.9 GPA, after extensive charity and social work. Of course, you've given up on photography, and I wish you hadn't. You always had a talent for it. Anything I'm missing?" Cheryl answers her easily, obviously keeping up with Toni's life in the gaps of their contact.

"Well, one thing. I'm having a baby." Toni says and Cheryl turns back to her painting. She clears her throat, "Yes. I had heard that. Congratulations Antoinette, you'll make a great mother. I won't be gauche and ask who the father is." Cheryl flashes a smile at her, but it obviously lacks the actual emotion. 

"I'm out to my family now, too. We've talked about you and how you've worked to separate yourself from your family and- and I think they would approve of us being together." Toni says, loving the way Cheryl smiles, and wishing she could see it way more often than she does, but even when she sees Cheryl it's rare to get a smile out of her. She knows that Cheryl isn't okay, but no matter how many times she asks, Cheryl denies it vehemently with a half-assed smile. 

"I'm so happy to hear that, Toni." Cheryl pauses and swallows. "But...it's not nearly enough. It might've been enough years ago, but now I know. The Blossom curse runs deep, and I wouldn't want to drag you or your baby into the mess that I'll eventually cause." Cheryl steps away from the painting and crosses her legs, giving her full attention to Toni.

"You think you're cursed." Toni realizes this may be why Cheryl never leaves Thornhill.

"Well isn't it obvious? I have nothing but my Nana, who unfortunately won't be around much longer, my twin brother died, my father killed himself, and my mother has gone who knows where." Cheryl says, as if its a no-brainer. 

"You have me." Toni says weakly. 

"Hardly, but I wish I did." Cheryl gets up and continues to paint. Their conversation dies there, and Toni just looks at Cheryl working for the rest of the day. 

_end of flashback_

"Wow. That sounds rough." Archie says, looking at the portrait, "She never said why she sent it?"

Toni shakes her head, "No. I haven't seen her since, either." she takes a long sip of her beer.

Archie thankfully has the sense to shift the conversation then, and Fangs gives her a pat on the back, hoping she won't wallow in her thoughts about Cheryl for too long, like she usually does.

Cheryl is a sore subject. For a while, Toni talked about her like she was sure they would find their way back to each other, but after not ever seeing her around town, visits that felt more estranged than hopeful, and never hearing from Cheryl, when she does talk about her ex, it's really just heartbreaking. Because Toni has loved Cheryl for all of the time she hadn't seen her, but Cheryl is now claiming she's cursed and can't be with Toni. 

While her old friends are catching up with Archie for the first time in seven years, Cheryl is at Thornhill, painting as always. Her Nana goes to bed early, like most older people do, and she has the late hours of the day all to herself. She spends most of her nights in the library, and reads until she's asleep on the uncomfortable seat. 

Sometimes she'll walk along the property of the backyard, and wonder if she had left Riverdale after they all graduated, where would she be now? She hates to think that she hasn't done her part in fixing the Blossom name like she had said promised Toni she would. But it's true, the evil her family has caused still exist and she hasn't been able to stop them.

Tonight, Cheryl just observes her paintings, perfecting the crafts of other famous artists instead of creating her own. She's taken up art forgery at her Nana's suggestion, it makes her a large profit, and pays off the debts of her family that she inherited from her retched mother. Nana Rose was the one who told her the Blossom curse, and it all made so much sense to Cheryl; the curse had cost her her twin flame, her best friend Jason, and her only real love, Toni. Her Nana told her that if she got involved with Toni again, it would cause the curse to come back. The curse is the reason she's all alone. 

The portrait of Toni is hanging above the fireplace in the den, where she sees it every day as she works. Cheryl finds that it hurts her more than it motivates her most days; more of a reminder of what she's supposed to have, but has to let go. Toni is pregnant. She didn't ask, because she didn't want to know who she moved on with. Toni deserves to be happy, and she will only ruin that. 


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toni goes to see Cheryl again, but it doesn't go as she hoped. She connects with Veronica and they start to work on fixing the town, but that doesn't go very well either...thank god things are starting to look up by the end of the day.

After talking with everyone about Cheryl, Toni feels like she has to go see her again. Maybe she'll beg Cheryl to come out of the house with her...or something. She doubts she'll go anywhere with her right now. Truthfully she doesn't really know how to speak to Cheryl anymore- she's changed from the Cheryl Toni knew, and she's more closed off than Toni has ever seen her. But she goes to see her anyway, because she's worried, and she can't stop thinking about her (as always).

"Antoinette" she greets, "This is a surprise, is there a reason you came all this way?"

"Well, not really. I wanted to check on you, and tell you Jughead, Veronica, Betty, and Archie are back. They'd probably like to see you." Toni says.

"I doubt they would want to see me, dear TT. Not to worry, though. There's no need for you to check up on me. Shouldn't someone be checking on you instead of me, considering your state?" Cheryl nods to Toni's belly.

Toni smiles a little, "I guess, I'm due in 2 months. But I think everyone would like to see you, Cheryl. Really, why don't you come out with me?" Toni tries, and Cheryl shakes her head right away. "Toni, please. Don't be foolish. I want you to be happy, you deserve that and I can not give it to you. You don't need to look after me." she says seriously, and it breaks Toni's heart a little more with every word.

"You don't really believe that, do you? Cheryl you deserve happiness too, and you've given me happiness." Toni begs her to just listen, but Cheryl stops by putting her hand up to stop her.

"I am perfectly content here with my Nana and my paintings, Toni." Cheryl flashes her that fake smile, and Toni frowns and crosses her arms.

"I can tell that you aren't happy, Cheryl. How could you be happy if you don't even leave your house?" Toni has given up on believing Cheryl at this point, because she is not happy. Something is wrong. Does she really believe that she can't make Toni happy? Who even made up this curse?

"Toni please, don't you have one of your three jobs to attend to?" Cheryl moves to close the door, not even inviting Toni in, and Toni yells in the door as a last-ditch effort. "I'll be back!" she says, and hates that its supposed to sound like some sort of threat.

"You shouldn't be, TT. Give up on me, I'm fine." and with that, Cheryl closes the door on Toni.

Toni sighs and gets on her bike to go back to the Wyrm. How can she get through to Cheryl? Does she send Veronica? She's really out of ideas. They were supposed to love each other forever, and now Cheryl is begging her to give up on her.

She gets to Pop's in time to see Veronica, Betty, Jughead, Archie, Sweet Pea, Fangs, and Kevin all sitting in the same area, talking loudly and sharing their food. The only people missing are her and Cheryl.

Toni joins them and joins the conversation easily, and when they ask where she was she just says she went to the High School to get something. Hearing about what everyone has been up to is nice, even Jughead finally says he's working on another book. The whole time, though? She wishes Cheryl was with her.

When everyone else has gone home or downstairs, Veronica is the only person left in the booth with her.

"So where were you really?" she asks after a beat, and Toni sighs over her milkshake.

"I went to see Cheryl." she admits, and Veronica tries to hide her shock, but doesn't do it very well.

"I thought you weren't together?" 

"Oh we definitely aren't. Cheryl wants me to give up on her, actually. She told me that today- that I shouldn’t go back to see her because she's fine." Toni says and Veronica feels for her. Toni looks so sad, she did a good job at hiding it around everyone else, but now there's a small pout stuck on her face while they talk about Cheryl.

"Why would she ask you to do that? Maybe I should I go see her?" Veronica is eager to help, but Toni shakes her head.

"I don't know, V. She's probably still being nicer to me than everyone else, and even now, that isn't very nice." Toni sighs again.

"I think I'll go up there sometime this week and see how she is for myself. Now back to you, you're pregnant! This is so exciting, Toni! Do you know if it's a boy or girl?" Veronica changes the subject, and Toni is grateful she did- she doesn't know how much longer she can talk about Cheryl without breaking down completely.

"No, I don't" Toni smiles and holds her belly, "I want to be surprised." she smiles at Veronica, who for her part does look very excited for Toni.

"So it's just you, then?" Veronica asks and takes a bite of her burger. Toni nods and Veronica hums, "That's nice. You'll be a great mom. My husband is trying to convince me that a year of marriage means that I should just start popping out his babies, how gross is that." Veronica says and Toni laughs.

"Those were his exact words, you're sure?" she laughs and Veronica rolls her eyes, "Well no, but pretty close actually."

-

Two days later, there's another knock at her door. She swears if its Toni she might scream, but when she opens it prepared to see her Antoinette, it's Veronica Lodge who's standing in front of her.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Cheryl says, not holding back.

"I saw Toni the other day, she was upset about you." Cheryl had not seen that coming, and swallows thickly. "Okay." she says and moves to close the door, but Veronica grabs it. "She said you told her to leave you alone. Why did you say that, Cheryl? You know you don't mean it." she tries to get through to her but Cheryl just pushes the door again.

"I do mean it, Veronica. And she'll get over it. I'm protecting her from me."

"From you?! What does-" But before Veronica can get Cheryl to explain it, the door closes with a loud slam and Cheryl locks it right away.

Well now she understands why Toni was so torn up about it the other day. Even worse, she's probably had to deal with Cheryl shutting her out way more times, and it must be breaking her heart.

Cheryl is on the other side of the door, watching Veronica go. She hadn't heard from Veronica in six years, so she really had no business pretending she cared about her. Did Toni send her here? Why couldn't everyone just leave her alone like she asked, and more importantly, why the hell was everyone back in Riverdale?

Veronica calls Toni from the car as she leaves. "Hey Veronica what's up?" she says and Veronica backs out of the driveway, "I just went to see Cheryl actually." she says and Toni breathes in sharply, "Oh. And how did that go?" Toni sounds hopeful, and Veronica frowns.

"I'll tell you when I get to you. Where are you now?" she opts to soften the blow for Toni, "I'm at the school, come on by." and drives to meet her at Riverdale High.

Toni lets her in the building and brings her to her office, where Sweet Pea and Fangs are already sitting. "Hey, guys." she greets them and sits, "So what are you guys doing?"

"We're actually trying to figure out what to do with your father." Fangs says and Veronica groans, "Not my evil father again. What are you trying to figure out?"

Toni leans on her desk and starts, "I think all of us want to fix the town, and he's the one thing standing in the way."

"Right, well catch me up, tell me what the plan is." Veronica looks around and waits for one of them to tell her.

"That's what we're working on, actually. So you can help!" Sweet Pea says and explains all the ways her father ruined the town since she left.

Toni nods, "We're trying to figure out how to keep the school. If we can at least control the school somehow, Hiram can't get to it, and people will stay so their kids go to school. But...apparently a school is expensive." Toni taps her pen on the desk and Veronica hums.

"How much exactly?" she asks tediously and Toni shakes her head, "Just short of a million dollars."

"Well-" just then, Fangs' radio goes off, and Sweet Pea asks him for a ride to his shift at the bar, so they go, leaving Toni and Veronica alone once again.

"Okay so don't be mad...but what if you asked Cheryl? Do you think she would help?" Veronica suggests and Toni shakes her head.

"Veronica there is no way I'm asking Cheryl for that kind of money. Not when I can barely ask her to let me in her house." Toni shakes her head vehemently, "no way."

"It couldn't hurt, could it?" Veronica shrugs and Toni drops her papers, "Actually I think it could hurt, a lot. I'm trying to get back to being close with her, not indebted to her."

"Toni, come on. Just leave like a voicemail, say you need her help...something like that. The school needs the money."

"I'll think about it, but I really hate it." Toni sighs and tosses Veronica more papers, "Now read those while I attempt to do my job."

Sure enough, after Veronica leaves to go meet her husband back at her place, Toni is leaving an uncomfortable voicemail in Cheryl's messages, "Hey Cheryl...it's me, um I need your help about something and I was hoping you might be able to meet me at Pop's tonight. It's also Pop Tate's retirement tonight so...it would be good if you were there, anyway um, I'll be there looking for you. Bye."

Toni despises leaving voicemails in general, but that one in particular made her want to never make a phone call ever again. "Fuck" she mumbles and puts her things together to go to Pop's. She just hopes the call was enough and that Cheryl will finally leave her house for this.

-

Toni is waiting in a booth, holding out hope that Cheryl will still show up. The retirement party ended an hour ago, and everyone else is downstairs while she looks up every time the door opens. Finally, the door opens and Toni is pleasantly surprised to see Cheryl walking in.

"Toni" she greets, and Toni smiles at her, "Hi, Cheryl. It's good to see you out of Thornhill."

Toni feels incredibly nervous seeing Cheryl across from her at Pop's; it brings back all kinds of feelings, and she wonders if Cheryl feels anything similar. She hopes she does. Not to mention Cheryl looks drop-dead gorgeous, seriously, Toni's heart flutters just looking at her.

"Don't get used to it. I'm mostly here for Pop, and your call seemed oddly urgent." Cheryl is looking around until her gaze lands on Toni, "So what is it that you need my help with?"

"Well, Hiram Lodge is trying to buy and sell Riverdale High, and we want to buy it back from him. We need your help." Toni looks desperate, and Cheryl looks...offended.

The flawless redhead in front of Toni sighs, "Antoinette..." she pauses again and rubs and her temple, "I understand that you may need my help, but there is no sense in using the word 'we'. If everyone else really wanted my help, they might've called at least once in the past few years, or asked me themselves instead of sending you to weaken me. So no, I can't help you Toni. It will only end up ruined like everything else a Blossom touches anyway." she shakes her head.

"Cheryl please, ignore everyone else then. For me?" Toni begs softly, "For the town?" she continues, hopeful that Cheryl won't be upset with her."

"Antoinette, I could care less about Riverdale. I suppose I could consider the offer for you." Cheryl says and Toni nods, "I'm begging you, Cheryl if you ever loved me..."

Cheryl is visibly taken aback, swallowing before meeting Toni's gaze for the longest time so far, "Toni, for the record, I don't appreciate you pulling my emotional strings for my cash, but I definitely don't enjoy you suggesting I never loved you in the name of funding Riverdale High of all places." Despite being upset, Cheryl doesn't raise her voice, not even slightly. "I will think about it Toni, that's all I can do for now." And then Cheryl leaves before Toni can react again.

Toni frowns, that did not go as she plans, and now she feels sick to her stomach about asking Cheryl for money. She feels like she broke a level of trust they had always honored because fucking Veronica Lodge told her to. It keeps her up nearly all night, and Toni decides to just bite the bullet and call Cheryl again.

"Cheryl, it's Toni. I wanted to apologize for today, I was out of line, and-and I don't want you to give us any money. It was stupid and I'm sorry."

The next day, Toni gets a check for nine-hundred thousand dollars in the mail, signed Cheryl Marjorie Blossom, and paired with a little note. 'Don't screw this up Antoinette, I trust you, and only you. Best of luck, CMB.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't really proofread this lol so if you see a mistake don't be shy ;)
> 
> Also, I didn't really like how Toni used Cheryl's feelings for her own gain in tonight's episode- it didn't seem like Toni. Next post is coming soon! thx for reading


End file.
